The organization of Chinese ceramic production from the Tang to the Ming periods: archaeological evidence from ceramic workshops

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper analyzes the plans and layouts of Chinese ceramic workshops from the Tang to Ming periods (seventh to seventeenth century AD) to understand how ceramic production was organized and how organization developed over time. Through the comparative examination of 254 workshops from 96 workshop sites, two workshop types have been defined based on the spatial arrangement of their production facilities. This paper argues that each workshop type reflects a different degree of labor specialization, and despite some regional differences, the organization of ceramic production developed in a consistent way across China.